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Diobol
| Issuer | Olbia (Skythia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 360 BC - 350 BC |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.62 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A Scythian archer depicted in a squatting or crouching posture facing left, drawing a strung bow with both hands in the act of loosing an arrow. The figure wears characteristic nomadic dress and is rendered in a schematic but energetic style typical of Olbian coinage of the mid-4th century BC. The abbreviated civic ethnic ΟΛ appears in the field, serving as the mint signature for Olbia. |
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| Mint | Olbia, Moesia, Ukraine |
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| Additional information |
Olbia, the Milesian colony at the mouth of the Hypanis (modern Bug) river, occupied an uneasy position between the Greek commercial world and the Scythian steppe interior. The city's silver coinage of this period reflects a community that depended heavily on grain export and slave trade with Scythian middlemen — the diobol denomination likely serving small-scale market transactions within that exchange economy rather than long-distance commerce.
Anokhin's sequencing places this issue in a politically stable phase before the Macedonian pressure that would later reshape Pontic Greek cities.